Microcontact Printing of Lipophilic Self-Assembled Monolayers for the Attachment of Biomimetic Lipid Bilayers to Surfaces

Abstract

This paper presents a novel method for supporting planar lipid bilayers using microcontact printed lipophilic self-assembled monolayers, in such a way as to retain their capacity to support biological functionality. Impedance spectroscopy, surface plasmon resonance, and atomic force microscopy are used to monitor the formation and investigate the properties of the supported bilayers. In addition, we show that the antibiotic peptide gramicidin and the ionophore valinomycin exhibit the expected ion selectivity. Finally, scanning force microscopy measurements show surface friction changes following bilayer formation. Chemically modified tips were used to obtain information about both the energy of the surface (hydrophobic/hydrophilic nature) and the mechanical properties of the surface.

Recent advances in the electrochemistry and spectroelectrochemistry of membrane proteins

“…Incorporation of a protein also increases the capacitance values, as a result of higher dielectric constant and disorder in the bilayer. The lipid bilayers tethered to gold surfaces with a cholesteryl-type tether exhibited almost ideal capacitance values (0.7 -0.9 μ F/cm 2 ; Jenkins et al , 1999 ). Interestingly, further incorporation of cytochrome bo 3 inside the bilayer did not significantly change these values, which suggests that the protein does not create too many defects in the structure of the bilayer (Jeuken et al , 2006 ).…”

“…For these reasons, the tethered bilayer lipid membrane (tBLM) methodology was developed. The tether is usually a bifunctional thiol consisting of a lipophilic end-group and hydrophilic spacer (Jenkins et al , 1999 ;Naumann et al , 1999 ;Schiller et al , 2003 ). After modification of the metallic surface with the tether, the lipid membrane incorporating the enzyme can be built by fusion of preformed phosphatidylcholine liposomes.…”

Supported Bilayer Lipid Membrane Arrays on Photopatterned Self‐Assembled Monolayers

“…Keywords: lipid bilayers · photopatterning · self-assembly · vesicles above the hydroxylated regions of the surface and monolayers above the cholesterol regions of the surface. [29,30] More recently we have introduced a variation on this approach by using photocleavable fluorocarbon molecules to form hydrophobic SAMs on gold substrates. Upon irradiation, through a mask, it was possible to cleave the fluorocarbon derivatives to leave hydrophilic patches separated by hydrophobic regions.…”

“…Secondly, rather than using the fluorocarbon derivative, as in our previous study on gold, we now introduce a cholesterol derivative since these are known to insert into the lipid layer and have proved successful in previous studies on the tethering of lipid bilayer membranes. [13,29,30,[32][33][34] …”

Micropatterned model biological membranes composed of polymerized and fluid lipid bilayers

“…There have been several lines of micropatterning approaches reported to date, including use of mechanical scratching, 18 prepatterned substrates, [19][20][21][22] microcontact printing, 23 microfluidics, 24,25 and ink-jet printer. 6 Compared with these approaches, micropatterning of SPBs by polymerized lipid bilayers is unique in that polymeric and fluid bilayers are integrated as a continuous membrane.…”